Pride over Pain
by brumal
Summary: Rin has to upkeep his image as the cool and collected senpai in front of Nitori, so, even if it kills him, he'll have to pretend that everything's okay, and that he doesn't feel like he'll enter a state of spontaneous combustion within the next two minutes.


**A/N**: If you would like to share this story on Tumblr, please reblog it directly from my blog! There's a link to my Tumblr on my account page. Please look through my "Story" tag to find it! Thank you.

* * *

"… Wait, so then it wouldn't it be, 'They are marrying,' instead of 'They are married'?"

The two of them stepped forward and grabbed a tray for themselves as the line moved slowly. A lot of people were in the dining hall, and they had to raise their voices a little to be heard.

Rin's eyes scanned the menu for today while absentmindedly answering. "No. It's supposed to be 'They are married,' because there's a difference between whether they're marrying _right now_, or if they already did so the past."

In front of him, Nitori hummed thoughtfully. "That's hard…" he said, pulling his lips to one side and wrinkling his eyebrows. "Oh! Curry, please," he said to the server. "Thank you."

Carelessly, Rin pushed his tray across the table, pointing at something else and saying, "I'll have the cold noodles." He pulled out his wallet from his pocket and began digging for loose change. "Not really," he replied, returning to his conversation with Nitori. "You just have to remember what you're trying to say first."

After they paid for their meal, the two of them weaved between tables to reach the corner one they usually sat at. It was right next to a window and relatively far away from other people.

Their trays clacked as they set them down and drew out their chairs.

"Hmm, I don't know. I think I'll still need to review it a few more times before I get it…." Nitori picked up his chopsticks and balanced them between his hands. "Thank you for the food!"

Rin mumbled his own phrase and started jabbing into his noodles.

"Oh, and about prepositions, I'm not really sure which ones to use when—" Nitori's voice cut off halfway when he put some rice and curry into his mouth. The abrupt silence prompted Rin to look up.

The first-year had his mouth tightly clenched, his face was growing rather red, and his hands were shaking a little as he put down his chopsticks. Hastily, he opened up his napkin and turned his head to the side. Nitori pressed his mouth against the opened sheet, spat out his food, wiped his lips, and downed all his water in one go.

Rin quirked an eyebrow at his kouhai's antics but said nothing.

Nitori coughed a few times and his eyes were watering, but then he looked up and smiled weakly.

Finally, Rin couldn't stand the strange silence. "What?" he asked roughly.

"N-Nothing! I'm just… I just realized I'm not very hungry." He rubbed his eyes and sniffled a bit.

"You haven't eaten since breakfast," Rin pointed out flatly.

"Yes, well, um," the first-year stammered, eyeing his plate of curry with a pained expression, "It was a lot, so I'm still full!"

There was no way in hell the older boy believed him, and he made that quite clear. "You had bread."

The silver-haired boy really looked like he wanted to cry now, but he wouldn't say anything.

Rin gave up and heaved a sigh. His eyes wandered away from the younger boy and back to the main dining hall area, leaving Nitori to suffer and sweat alone. Something on the menu caught his eye, and he turned back to Nitori silently.

With his knuckles, he pushed his bowl of cold noodles toward him.

"Here," he said simply, putting down his chopsticks and reaching for Nitori's curry.

"W-Wait, Matsuoka-senpai, what are you doing?"

The steely glare he shot at Nitori shut up him. "It's too spicy for you, right?"

Nitori's silence was answer enough.

With much grumbling and a long-suffering sigh, Rin swapped their food. "Why'd you get the curry if you can't handle spicy food?"

"I forgot it was on Wednesdays that they make the curry extra spicy!" he finally wailed, his face red and eyes clenched in embarrassment.

"It was written right there on the menu. How did you not notice?" Rin asked peevishly, not really expecting an answer. Nitori was really silly sometimes, but he always meant well.

His clear blue eyes darted down to the side as he squirmed in his seat. "I was too busy thinking about English grammar, so I didn't look…. A-Anyway, Senpai, are you sure you're okay with eating that? It's really spicy…."

"S'fine," the redhead muttered, aggressively stabbing the curry now. He glanced at Nitori. "Eat."

"Yes! Of course. Thank you for the food!" he said quickly, his face lighting up again.

Evidently, Nitori was actually starving, because he dug into the bowl of noodles like he hadn't eaten in days. While slurping noises filled the space between them, Rin stared at his plate. He had never gotten the extra-spicy curry before, but he figured it would be okay. If he could handle kimchi, he could handle curry.

Rin doubted the school would make the curry too spicy anyway.

He mixed some of the rice and curry together before shoving it into his mouth.

"'Ow ish it, Shenpai?" Nitori asked with his mouth full. A noodle was hanging out from his mouth, making him look ridiculous. In any other case, Rin would have gotten annoyed at him, but he was too busy feeling like he could breathe fire.

The longer the clump of food sat on his tongue, the more the burning spread. Rin fleetingly thought about whether or not the school was trying to kill them, because this was really ridiculously spicy. It wasn't even like Japanese people could handle spice very well, so what the hell was up with this curry?

But Nitori was watching him with expectant eyes, and there was no way he could back out of this.

Rin blinked his tears back (subtly) and swallowed. "S'fine," he said again.

"I'm glad! I thought maybe it would be too much for you. Sorry about inconveniencing you though, Senpai," he said while picking up more noodles between his chopsticks. He smiled a little and resumed eating.

Immediately, Rin regretted his nonchalant answer. This was absurdly hot. But since he already said he was okay, there was no way for him to back out of this without losing face.

He wondered if he would suffer more if he ate as quickly as he could or if it would be better to take it slowly. Rin didn't really have a choice though, because Nitori was halfway done already, and he didn't want to have the boy watching him eat. He should probably finish before or around the time Nitori did.

Silently, he drew a preparatory breath and mashed some curry with his rice. It would be okay to leave some of it behind and just eat the rice, right? He tried to bargain his way out of hell, but was having a hard time with it. Nitori would probably not comment on it either way.

The second bite was as excruciating as the first, and Rin barely chewed it before swallowing, feeling it burn his lips and throat the entire way down. He was not going to have a fun night, he could just tell. What he hoped for most was that it wouldn't affect his swimming later on, but that didn't seem very likely.

Sweat began to line his hairline as he continued eating in utter silence. He was barely able to focus on anything besides not going into spontaneous combustion. It hurt so much and his eyes were tearing up, but at least Nitori was blissfully unaware of this. He just kept chattering away between bites, as he usually did. Since Rin hardly ever really said much in response anyway, the silver-haired boy found nothing out of the ordinary with his senpai's reticence.

He felt like he was going to die by the time he was three-fourths of the way done. The entire time, Rin had been eating more of the rice than the curry, but there was still quite a bit left. The redhead tried to give himself a pep-talk and compared the plate of curry with the last fifty of a 200-meter race.

This was the last leg of the race, so all he had to do was go fast and use up all his energy. There was no use in holding back any longer. Now, it was all or nothing. Just that little bit more, and then he would be done.

Rin feigned scratching his forehead to wipe away the sweat there and dove into his curry. He was really scarfing it down with all his energy, to the point where Nitori stopped eating and watched him in awe.

The second Rin finished, looking even more murderous than he usually did, his kouhai had to resist breaking out into applause.

"Wow," he said. "You must have really liked it, Senpai! Was it that good?"

He grunted, but his voice came out weird, on account of how scratchy his throat was. He cleared it and picked up his glass of water, hoping Nitori didn't notice how his fingertips quivered. As calmly as he could, he took a long sip of it. It felt heavenly to have the ice fall into his mouth, but the second they warmed up, its soothing balm went away. He crunched on the ice anyway.

"I wish I could handle spicy food as well as you could, Senpai!" Nitori said wistfully. He picked up the last strands of his absolutely, not-even-a-little-spicy noodles and finished it. "Thank you for the meal!" he said.

The water probably made things worse than it helped, and Rin seriously felt like he was losing feeling in his fingertips and lips.

"Let's go," he said hoarsely, pushing up from his seat and not caring at all that his chair screeched. He roughly grabbed his tray and made his way to the return area, trying to look appropriately hostile and not like he was about to pass out.

Of course, Nitori had to scramble next to him and apologized to everyone his senpai crashed into in his haste to get out. Rin practically threw the tray onto the conveyor belt and headed straight outside without waiting for Nitori. He was making a beeline to their dorm room.

"Senpai, are we going back before heading to practice?"

Rin didn't answer. He had to keep his cool until at least they got back to the privacy of their room. He would have liked to remain level-headed and in control in front of Nitori, but at this rate, it would be impossible.

Thank goodness for Rin, their room wasn't too far from the dining facilities.

What was it that helped soothe pain when it came to spice? Milk? Was it milk? Rin couldn't really think straight, but he thought he read about that somewhere. It was supposed to be a base, so it would help with the burning. Probably.

Good thing he just bought some milk the other day. He would just have to get to the fridge, take the carton, and go back to their room.

Nitori was understandably confused, but he, as usual, followed after Rin. Since he wasn't replying to anything, Nitori stopped asking. He kept watching though. Even though his senpai was usually very quiet, he was being disconcertingly so now.

He began to wonder if he had said something to upset Rin, but he didn't think so. All he talked about was his classes, and there shouldn't have been anything offensive there.

"Um, you're still thirsty, Senpai?" he tried when he saw Rin take out a carton of milk from the communal fridge. He was hoping that would get something out from the redhead. Somehow, he looked angrier than usual, but Nitori wasn't sure if that was just him overreacting and worrying too much.

When they went back into their room, Nitori almost crashed into Rin because he hadn't expected the boy to just stand at the entrance and start drinking.

"W-Whoa!" he exclaimed, taking a quick step back. Carefully, he edged around him, hanging nervously around Rin's desk. As he anxiously watched Rin, something clicked in his mind. "Er, Senpai…. You don't happen to have… not been able to handle that curry, right?"

He didn't think Rin would actually respond, but he jumped a bit when the redhead abruptly stopped drinking and eyed him viciously with a snarl.

Since some milk was stuck on the top of his lips, the effect was more comical than threatening.

A bubble of laughter burst from his lips unwittingly. Nitori immediately clapped his hands over his mouth, but it was too late. Rin had definitely heard it.

"S-Sorry, Senpai, you just look so—" the silver-haired boy said, digging his own grave deeper. "Why didn't you tell me it was too spicy? We could have bought you something else if that was the case!" he exclaimed, eyebrows rising and the smile not quite wiped off his face.

Rin looked so furious but the situation was too hilarious, and his momentary calm slipped away from him. Nitori began to laugh. Even when he pressed his hands firmly over his open mouth and shrank back from Rin, who had put the milk down on Nitori's desk and began to stalk toward him, he couldn't stop.

"Se-Senpai, no, no, no! What are you—pffthehehe!" the boy giggled, tears forming in his eyes. He couldn't even stop laughing long enough to tell Rin that he still had a milk moustache.

"Nitori…" Rin said threateningly, his expression dark and shoulders hunched.

The younger boy wanted to scramble up the ladder to the safety of his bunk, but Rin was too fast. He trapped him between his body and the lower bunk, pushed his head down, and tripped him onto the mattress. Shortly after, Rin ducked under as well.

Nitori squealed and tried to crawl away, but he was too slow. Rin already had his fingers against his ribcage.

He was absolutely shrieking with laughter as Rin tickled him.

"Hahaha! Senpai! Matsuoka-senpai! S-Stop!"

He thrashed around as Rin continued to torture him, but there was no way he was going to be able to escape.

Somewhere along the way, Rin's embarrassment and fury had simmered down, and he began to grin as well. It was a pretty ridiculous situation to begin with, he had to admit. He would probably want to punch Nitori in the face later in the day, when the curry came back to haunt him, but for now, the burning in his mouth had stopped, and the younger boy's laughter was sweet in the air.

Rin didn't stop until Nitori almost rolled off his bed. He hastily grabbed the silver-haired boy by the arm and dragged him back on the mattress before leaning back on the wall, also out of breath. It was a real struggle to not get injured from Nitori's flailing limbs.

Nitori was still laughing breathlessly as he sprawled on the mattress, hair stuck sideways on his face and chest heaving. They had been struggling so much on the mattress that the pillow had fallen off, and Rin's blankets were a mess. A few times, Nitori seemed to have calmed down but a new series of giggles wracked his body, and he had to cover his face with his hands.

Eventually, Rin got embarrassed again and punched him hard on the shoulder. It was with an "Ow," that Nitori apologized once more and finally calmed down.

Until he spotted Rin's milk moustache and almost rolled off the bed from laughing too hard again.

Afterwards, Nitori bought some bread and a drink for Rin as an apology, but it wasn't for a few days until Nitori could stop looking at him and suddenly ducking away to hide his grin.

The younger boy occasionally made oblique references to the incident to tease Rin and got quite skilled at dodging the flying projectiles the redhead kept sending at his head.

Both of them avoided the curry following that incident, and Rin gained pretty good blackmail material to hold over Nitori whenever he got annoyed with him.

Not that he ever carried through with the threat of forcing him to eat the campus curry on Wednesday, and not that Nitori actually believed Rin would, but whenever Rin caught Nitori looking at him deviously and smiling, he would roll his eyes and punch him on the shoulder.

Someone had to keep his kouhai in order, after all.

Which was also why Rin always pushed Nitori's head down and ruffled his hair whenever he laughed—to make sure the younger boy never got to see the fond, little smile he could never repress completely around him.


End file.
